


Meaning of Family

by Fanofeverything101



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, James trying to be a good parent, Kidnapping, Mac Whump, Non-Graphic Torture, Post Season 2 Finale, Protective Jack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24149206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fanofeverything101/pseuds/Fanofeverything101
Summary: Mac wasn’t sure what he wanted to do after he quit the Phoenix, but he was determined to figure it out. Unfortunately, he forgot that just because he had left his old life behind didn’t mean that his enemies from that life would just forget how he brought them down and leave him in peace. *Post 2x23 finale. Written before season 3 aired. Doesn't follow season 3 plot.*
Comments: 9
Kudos: 33





	1. Vanishing Act

It was two weeks after that dreaded day, the day Mac told his father, his boss, that he couldn’t work for someone he didn’t trust and quit the Phoenix Foundation, that Jack walked up the small driveway towards Mac’s and Bozer’s home. During those last few weeks, Bozer had repeatedly tried to talk Mac into coming back, as did Riley, but after the first week, she stopped because she also decided to leave the team and go to work with Billy Colton, her boyfriend, and his family.

Jack hated the last two weeks. He didn’t like that he no longer worked with his best friend, his partner, his little brother. At least he could still visit Mac though as they still lived in the same city. Riley on the other hand was planning on moving closer to the Colton family. It would be easier for her to work with them that way. Jack hated that way. He spent most of the week trying to convince Riley to come back than he did Mac. He did at first, but then stopped because he completely understood what was going on in his partner’s head.

Having been present for part of the conversations Mac had with his father, and having been filled in on the rest from Mac, he knew what James MacGyver said to his son. What he claimed to have done. If there was one thing that Jack knew about the kid is that he liked being in control. And having been told that someone was actually directing you, manipulating you into doing things and you didn’t even realize or know about it pretty much your entire life, was every control freak’s worst nightmare.

So yeah, Jack understood why Mac quit. It was his way of not only regaining some level of control over his own life, from the expression on James’s face, he hadn’t been expecting that, it was also to give him a chance to clear his head, and figure out who he was all on his own. Jack was already pretty sure he hated James MacGyver simply because he abandoned probably the best kid ever, but the minute he took Mac’s identity away from him, that hate became solidified.

Jack himself had even started using his sick days and vacation time so he wouldn’t have to go to work knowing who was actually in charge there. His own little way of sticking it to the boss. He would’ve quit along with Mac if it wasn’t for the almost certainty that Mac would eventually come back to the team. Another thing he knew about Mac, was that he loved science, he loved helping people, and he loved feeling like he had a purpose. The Phoenix Foundation gave him all of those things, plus some people who truly cared about him, a certain individual excluded of course. Which was why Jack decided to plan an unscheduled visit, to see how Mac was doing, and to see if he was actually planning on coming back or if he needed more time.

“Hey Mac? You here?” Jack called out as he entered the house, closing the door behind him.

“In the living room.” The sniper heard his partner, well, technically former partner, reply from the other room. Jack kicked off his shoes so he wouldn’t track mud through the house, Mac always got annoyed with him when he did that, and that wouldn’t help him convince Mac to return to Phoenix. He then started to make his way to the living room.

As Jack entered the room, he found Mac lying on his back underneath his motorcycle. Coming over to sit on the chair near the blonde, Jack said, “Working on your bike again?”

“Yeah, I need to make sure it’s 100% ready.” Mac answered as he continued working.

“Ready for what?” Jack wondered, not at all sure what younger man was talking about.

“I’m taking a trip. Going to go around the country on my bike, take that long-deserved vacation I had meaning to take for years.” Mac replied, still keeping his focus on the bike, oblivious to the surprised look on the sniper’s face.

“How long you planning on being gone? And what are you planning on doing after that?” Jack asked. He felt like he was beating around the bush enough. He understood why Mac quit, but he also knew the former agent. He wasn’t going to be able to stay away for long, or at least, not jobless for long. Mac wasn’t the kind of person who liked not doing anything.

“No idea. As long as I want and whatever I want. Maybe I’ll start working on my bucket list.” Mac answered as he continued working.

“Didn’t know you really had a bucket list.” Jack stated.

“Not so much as stuff I want to do before I die, but more like stuff I had been meaning to do that I haven’t because of work.” That Jack could understand. There had been several times Mac mentioned stuff he wanted to do and sometimes he would actually make plans to do it, but work pretty much always got in the way.

“Mac, it’s been nearly two weeks since you quit. Are you ever coming back?” Jack decided to cut right to the chase. For the last two weeks, he had let Mac be, watched him struggle to figure out what to do and process everything that he had learned from his Dad, but he needed to know if his partner was coming back.

From underneath the bike, Mac sighed loudly. Jack had asked him about two days after he quit if he would come back to work for the Phoenix Foundation. He had told him no, and they haven’t talked about it since. Bozer had definitely kept trying to convince him, but Jack had kept his mouth shut. He knew though that it was only a matter of time before his partner brought it up again. Apparently, it was now. So Mac pushed himself out from under his bike and sat up to look up at the dark-haired man.

“Jack, we’ve been through this. No, no I’m not.” Mac answered, then looked down at the floor as he added, “After everything my, he told me, I need to do what I want to do. I need to do something that isn’t being manipulated by him, that isn’t controlled by him.”

“You know he was talking a bunch of crap to try and get you to think he was looking after you, right? To make it seem like he was being a good parent? You are who you are because of you, not him.” Jack insisted with a compassionate voice.

“Maybe, maybe not.” Mac replied, looking up at Jack again. Despite the guarded expression, Jack could see the pain in his bright, blue, eyes.

“Jack, please.” Mac quickly said when he saw that Jack was about to say something, “Just let me do this.”

The sniper was clearly not overall happy with Mac’s decision, but he understood where the blonde was coming from. So he agreed, “Okay.”

Mac gave him a small, grateful, smile before he got back down on his back and continued to work on his bike. Jack then stood up and asked, “Need a hand?”

“Sure.” The blonde answered and together, the two worked on the bike for the next few hours. After the weirdness over the last few weeks, it felt nice to both Mac and Jack to do something that was normal for them.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

It was late when Jack left, and even later when Mac decided to turn in for the night. The two partners, former partners that is, worked on the bike for the majority of the afternoon, then had a small James Bond movie marathon and pizza and some beer. Though Mac didn’t really think it was necessary for his friend to come over and check on him, he knew that was what he was dong, it felt nice to hang out with Jack for a bit. Even though it had only been two weeks, he was already really missing working with the sniper.

After Jack left, Mac climbed up the house a bit, then decided to continue the movies himself while he waited for Bozer to come home. Having worked for the Phoenix Foundation for years, he knew late nights were a very common thing. Though hearing the stories of what was going on at work did make the blonde a little upset he was no longer working there, he liked hearing them, and Bozer certainly loved telling him.

By the time it was half past midnight, Mac decided to call it a night, knowing Bozer could tell him all the stories in the morning. After turning off the TV and the living room light, Mac locked the terrace door and headed to the main door to lock it and turn on the alarm. However, he found the screen on the small device completely black, like it wasn’t even plugged in. Mac tried to press the ‘on’ switch, but nothing happened.

“What?” Mac mumbled to himself as he tried once again to turn on the alarm. He reached for his swiss army knife to take apart the device, thinking that maybe some off the plugs fell out of place or something when he heard the sound of glass shattering.

Mac quickly flipped the blade out to use as a weapon if necessary, letting his instincts completely take over. He then began to make his way towards the source of the noise slowly and carefully, staying close to the wall for cover. He only made it about two feet before an arm wrapped itself around his shoulders and chest, pulling him backwards against a large, well-muscled chest.

He immediately moved to elbow the person in the ribs, but whoever was holding him suddenly brought a rag up to his mouth with his other arm. It only took on whiff to realize it was ether, a type of sleeping agent on the chemical. He tried not to breathe as he continued to try and break out of the person’s hold, but with the adrenaline running through his body and the constant moving, oxygen was moving. Before Mac knew it, he felt his body become numb as his vision turned pitch black.


	2. Rude Awakenings

It was almost four in the morning when Bozer finally pulled up in the driveway. He and Leanna had been working late, which had been happening more often in the last two weeks since Mac and Riley both quit and Jack was out on leave, using his sick days and vacation time. Even with the extremely late night, they still had a lot more work to do tomorrow. Bozer wondered if he should’ve just slept in his lab, but he wanted to sleep in his bed. It was a lot more comfy. Plus, he wanted to check on Mac. He didn’t like leaving his best friend home alone due to the circumstances.

Ever since Mac quit two weeks ago, Bozer had been doing his best to make sure his friend was okay and trying to get him to come back to work. He knew that Mac’s father coming back into his life was hard on the blonde, and though he knew that more had happened during their mission together with Jack, Bozer hoped that Mac would be able to fix his relationship with his father. But Mac was refusing to talk about it. So, it was his duty as Mac’s best friend to be there for him and make sure he was okay.

“I’m home.” Bozer said as he entered the building, just in case Mac was still up. While normal people weren’t still up at four in the morning, Mac wasn’t normal. There had been several times his roommate stayed up all night working on a project. From the looks of things though, it was clear that Mac was in bed. So, Bozer locked the door and went over to the alarm to turn it off and reset it before it went off. He stopped though when he saw the screen was completely black.

“Huh, guess he forgot to turn on the alarm.” Bozer mumbled to himself, then pressed the ‘on’ button. When nothing happened though, Bozer just continued into house, assuming the alarm was just broken or something. He’d tell Mac about it in the morning and he’d probably fix it. The mask-maker stopped in his tracks though when he saw that the terrace door which had a large window into was shattered, thousands of pieces of glass lying on the floor.

“What the,” Bozer started, then immediately stopped, dread and fear surging through his body. Though he hadn’t been a spy for very long, nor was he in the field all that often, everyone knew that an alarm not working and a broken window were not good signs.

“Mac!” Bozer yelled as he ran towards his roommate’s bedroom and threw open the door. When he saw that the room was completely empty, he ran into every single room in the house in search for his best friend, but he found no one. The place was deserted. Now completely panicked, Bozer pulled out his phone and hit speed dial.

“Jack? It’s Bozer.” Bozer started, pausing when Jack started complaining about the time, but he quickly ignored it and said, “Yeah, I know it’s late, or really early depending on how you look at it but, but I think Mac was just kidnapped.”

**2016MACGYVER2016**

Mac woke up a lot slower and was still a lot more groggy than he would have liked. The sad thing was, he was getting used to waking up feeling like that. It meant that he had been drugged. And if he had been drugged, that meant that either something bad had happened to him and he was in the hospital, or he had just been kidnapped, again. While the blonde really hoped it was the first one, despite how much he hated hospitals, he was pretty sure it was the latter. The fact that he was sitting upright in something hard like a chair and what felt like rope wrapped tightly around his wrists though proved that even though he hadn’t opened his eyes yet.

Soon though, Mac felt awake and alert enough to try and figure out what happened, where he was, and how to get out. So Mac forced his blue eyes open and examined his soundings. He was in a dark and damp room with no window and only one door. It reminded him a lot of when Murdoc kidnapped him. Only difference was that the person who took him didn’t stick an IV in him and used rope to tie his wrists to the chair arms instead of handcuffs.

After testing the ropes a little by pulling on them, he found they were far too tight for him to slip his hands out. So, he wracked his brain, trying to figure out who kidnapped him this time. The first person who came to mind was Murdoc, as he was pretty much his nemesis and the assassin had done this before, but Mac had no shortage of enemies. He didn’t have long to think ad theorize though before the steel door opened and a tall, muscular man came in.

“Morning mini MacGyver.” The man said with a smile as he shut the door, then walked over to Mac.

“Walsh?” Mac quickly recognized the person in front of him. Walsh smiled and crouched down in front of him.

“That’s right. Good to see that the blow to the head hasn’t caused any permanent injury.” Walsh responded, his smile causing chills to run through Mac’s spine, though he did his best to hide that.

“Why do you care? You hate me, and you hate my Dad. Pretty sure you didn’t kidnap me to make sure that I’m perfectly healthy.” Mac wondered, leaning back in his chair.

“You’re right about that.” Walsh confirmed, nodding his head while his smile shrunk a little.

“You going to tell me why I’m here?” Mac finally asked. He knew there was a reason Walsh had kidnapped him. If he simply wanted revenge, he probably would’ve just killed him, instead of going through the trouble of breaking into his home, drugging him, and taking him.

“Well, there’s two reasons actually.” Walsh revealed, “One, to get back at your Dad.”

“Well, that’s not going to work. My Dad couldn’t care less about me.” Mac immediately objected with a slight scoff.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Walsh told him before adding, “Either way, the main reason is reason number two.”

“And that is?” Mac prompted the man to continue.

“As you well know, there’s a certain drug your father started to make, but never perfected it.” The former Agent instinctively tensed up when Walsh said that, the pieces already falling into place.

“You, mini MacGyver, are going to make and perfect it for me.” Walsh told him with a sick grin that promised Mac what was going to happen if he refused, but the blonde didn’t care. He wasn’t going to help him. So that left only one option. Endure whatever his Dad’s former partner had planned for him until he either escaped, or help arrived. Either way, Mac knew this was going to be a long and pain-filled day.


	3. First Clue

By the time it was seven in the morning, Mac and Bozer’s house was officially a crime scene, again. Several agents went through the house, looking for clues while the team was meeting with Matty in the war room at Phoenix. Despite the fact that Mac was not an agent for Phoenix anymore, he had been and knew several of their government secrets. Therefore, it was imperative that he was found as soon as possible, preferably alive. Or at least, that’s what Oversight said when he was informed of the situation.

Now that everyone on the team knew that Oversight was none other than James MacGyver, Mac’s father who left him when he was a child, they couldn’t help but wonder how he was going to react to news that his son was kidnapped. Jack was somewhat certain the man wouldn’t do much, he hadn’t seemed to react the other times Mac had been kidnapped or shot or nearly blown up after all. But James surprised them all when he showed up at the house in person. He took a look at the damage before ordering the team back to Phoenix and making sure every agent knew that finding Angus MacGyver was a top priority.

Before they even left the house, James went over to Jack and asked him to contact Riley and ask her if she would be willing to come and help them find his missing son since she had quit Phoenix a week ago and would not be apart of the search and rescue team another way. Jack of course said he would, but not without asking why Oversight wanted Riley specifically. After all, he had several computer analysts working for the Phoenix Foundation. Oversight quickly replied that it was because he wanted the best, and that was Riley. And that was how Bozer, Leanna, Jack, and Riley ended up in the war room, waiting for Matty at seven in the morning. By the time it was 7:01, the door opened and Director Webber walked in.

“What have you got Riley?” Matty demanded as she came to stand in the front of the room.

“Absolutely nothing.” Riley regretfully reported. When Matty gave her a questioning glare, the hacker immediately jumped to explain, “There’s at least an eight hour window where whoever it was could’ve grabbed Mac and in Los Angeles, on a Saturday night, there are a lot of cars, which we also have no way of narrowing it down. I’m trying, but it’s going to be nearly impossible to track Mac and his kidnapper down unless we can narrow it down.”

“Is there any way we can?” Bozer jumped in, beyond worried about his childhood best friend, only seconds before Jack could ask the very same question.

“I’ve got people on your guys’ security system, trying to see what the kidnapper did to it and when. If we can figure that out, we can see if they left any piece of evidence and when they messed with it. That should help us get a better timeline of when our boy was taken.” Matty answered.

She had meant to be reassuring them, but from the expressions on the team members’ faces, they all knew it was a long shot. The person or people who took Mac could’ve easily messed with the security system anytime, maybe even remotely. There was no guarantee that the information of when the kidnapper wrecked the security would help narrow down when exactly Mac was taken. As Matty tried to think of something comforting to tell the team, and herself because she was worried about the kid too, the door burst open and James MacGyver strode in.

“It was Jonah Walsh.” James stated in a tone that left no room for argument. That didn’t mean Jack didn’t try though.

“How do you know?” The sniper questioned his boss. James looked over at him, looking a little annoyed that his employee seemed to be doubting him.

Despite that though, Oversight lifted a small, plastic evidence bag that held a white cloth inside and answered, “This.”

“That’s how he got Mac?” Bozer questioned, even though they all knew the answer.

“Yeah. There’s enough ether on here to knock out a horse. Would’ve only taken a few seconds.” Oversight replied, pretending not to notice terrified and worried look of Jack’s face as he continued, “But we found Walsh’s fingerprints on it.”

“So either that was really sloppy or,” Bozer started before Leanna cut him off.

“Or he didn’t care if we knew who took Mac.” Leanna finished her boyfriend’s train of thought.

“No, he wanted us to know. Wanted me to know.” James responded as he looked back down at the cloth in the bag in his hand, “This is personal. We destroyed the notes, destroyed his factory. He wants revenge.”

“If he just wanted revenge, wouldn’t he have just, killed Mac?” Bozer wondered, though he had to literally force the words out. The thought of his best friend being dead, was a thought he never wanted to have.

“No, that would be too easy. He’s got something planned, that I know for a fact.” Oversight replied, looking over at Bozer with a slightly reassuring expression, easily seeing how worried the new agent was over his son. He was worried too.

“Problem is, Walsh has been running for years, completely off the radar. How do we find him?” Riley wondered, looking up at their boos from her laptop.

“I’ve found him before, and I can do it again.” James answered with a confident tone.

“Except it took you years to find him. Mac doesn’t have that much time.” Jack suddenly chimed in, voice full of anger that was clearly directed at his partner’s father.

“Depends on his plan. Walsh did this to get back at me, he’s not going to be able to resist taunting me, or wanting to make a deal, or lead me into a trap. The minute he does that, we’ll find him.” Oversight answered, doing his best to ignore Jack’s anger. As the boss, he did not approve at all of Dalton’s tone of voice, but he knew how close the sniper was to his son and let it slide.

“And if he doesn’t?” Jack questioned, tone hard and relentless. Again, Oversight chose to ignore it, for now at least. If the snipe kept this up, then they would definitely have to have a talk, but hopefully, they could find his son before it came to that.

“He will.” James insisted. Seeing the expressions on Jack’s, Riley’s, Bozer’s, Matty’s, and Leanna’s faces though, he knew they still wanted to know what would happen if he couldn’t find his former partner. Though he didn’t want to, he gave them the answer they already knew, “If he doesn’t, Mac will find a way to get out, or send a signal. He’ll be okay until we can find him.”

**2016MACGYVER2016**

Jonah Walsh exited the room about an hour after he entered it. He closed the door tightly and locked it. Even though his captive was tied down rather securely, his hostage was a MacGyver, and they were clever, sneaky little b*****ds. He wouldn’t out it past the boy to figure out a way to get free and escape.

Once Walsh was sure the door was locked securely, he started walking down the hall, planning on heading to the bathroom to wash the kid’s blood off his hands. Like he expected, the kid wasn’t going to budge easily, but he wasn’t sure how strong the boy was. Stronger than most apparently.

Planning on heading to the bathroom to fully clean his hands, Walsh paused when his cell phone started vibrating in his pocket. He quickly pulled it out before clicking the ‘accept’ on the screen and continuing on his path.

“ _Well?_ ” The voice on the other hand said before Walsh could get a word out.

“I got him quite easily. He wasn’t hard to find at all.” Walsh responded to the drug lord, Luis Gomez?, who had ordered him to find the kid.

“ _Good. Has he agreed to help us in our endeavor?_ ” His boss questioned, sounding slightly impressed that it didn’t take long for him to find one of their targets.

“Not yet.” Walsh replied. He could hear his boss say on the other end, but all the man said was, “ _Then do what it takes to get him to say yes._ ”

“It will be my pleasure.” Walsh told him, smiling even though his boss obviously couldn’t see it. He then heard his boss hang up the phone and he proceeded to do the same, and put it away.

After Walsh put the cell phone in his pocket, he looked at the watch on his wrist, then back at the hallway which led to the room where he was holding James’s kid. It was nearly lunchtime and he was hungry. Part of him was hesitant to leave the kid alone for long, he was a MacGyver after all, but, he was practically unconscious when he left the room, and he wouldn’t be gone long. Plus, he had the alarm on. If the kid did manage to get out of the ropes and through the locked door, he would trigger the alarm once he tried to leave the house. There was no way he would be getting free.

So, satisfied that his captive wasn’t going anywhere soon, Walsh headed to the kitchen to get something to eat. Besides, the kid could probably use a break, use the time to regain his strength. He would need it for what Walsh had planned.


	4. Old Faces, New Ideas

It took almost 15 hours for Oversight to go back into all of his notes of his tracking Jonah Walsh, find the places he had figured where his former partner had hidden in or he had used before, and to assembly TAC teams to search them. By the time they got to the last house on the list, it was late evening. As the team, which James MacGyver and Jack Dalton were apart of, burst into the building, they found it empty and dark as every leader of the teams shouted the word ‘clear’.

“There’s nobody here. Doesn’t look like there has been for a while.” The head of the TAC team came over to inform James, who stood by the door.

“Any more dead ends you want to check?” Jack questioned his boss with a sarcastic tone, furious that they had now wasted an entire team on nothing but dead ends.

“No, this was the last one.” James murmured, completely ignoring Jack because not only had he also realized that in the last several hours since they found out Mac had been kidnapped they had found nothing besides evidence of the person who took him, they now had no more leads to follow.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

One hour later, back at the Phoenix Foundation Headquarters in the war room, Jack and Riley were alone, waiting for any news from the TAC team if Jonah Walsh had been there at all, if it was recent or not, if Mac had been there, or there was any clue as to where he could have gone next. Riley was in one of the chairs on her laptop, waiting for the report to come up while Jack, still wearing his bulletproof vest and gun holsters paced in the front of the room. He had come right up to the room once he, the TAC team, and Oversight got back, but had only found Riley.

Apparently, Matty went to go get some coffee while Bozer and Leanna went to get a bunch of snacks for the team, having realized that nobody had actually eaten at all that day. They had all been too focused on finding Mac, and too worried about him to even think of it, which left Jack alone with Riley as Oversight hadn’t made a reappearance yet. As Jack made his millionth turn to pace the length of the room again, he heard the _ding_ on Riley’s computer, telling him that the report had just popped up.

“So, they did find trace amounts of DNA, loose hair, that kind of thing. Walsh was definitely there at some point, but most likely not recently.” Riley informed the sniper as the report of what had been found at the abandoned house popped up on her laptop.

“Great, so, nothing at all important to what we need right now.” Jack snapped in a furious tone. Only one second later though, he immediately turned to look at their, now former, hacker with a guilt-ridden face, “Sorry Riles, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay Jack.” Riley told him. Though his tone had caught her a little off guard, she wasn’t overall surprised, nor was she upset at all. She could tell from the beginning how close Jack was to Mac, how protective he was over the blonde, and with every mission she went on with them, she saw it more and more. And with Mac now missing, she could see how close he was to losing his mind, especially when he stopped pacing and sat down on one of the chairs, putting his head in his hands.

“Hey.” Riley muttered, just loud enough for Jack to hear her as she got off her chair and walked over to him. As she crouched down in front of him, she said, “We’re going to find him.”

Jack looked up at her, but before he could respond, the door burst open and Oversight, Matty, Bozer and Leanna strolled into the room, with James MacGyver asking, “Did they find anything Riley?”

“Evidence that Walsh had been there before, but nothing that shows it was recently, nor was there any sign that Mac had been there.” Riley answered as she stood straight up and started to make her way back to her laptop. James immediately went over to the large board in the front of the room and pulled up the report to see for himself. When he saw that Riley was right, he sighed in frustration and annoyance.

“Maybe we need to take a different approach.” A female, Australian voice broke the silence, causing everyone to look over at the door. To the surprise of everyone, besides Matty, Samantha Cage stood by the doorway, looking over them all.

“Cage? What are you doing here?” Bozer asked, “I thought you were healing up in Australia with your sister.”

“I was, but I’m all healed up and ready to get back to work. And when I talked to Matty and found out what was going on, I jumped on the first and fastest jet I could find.” Cage answered, giving Matty, Bozer, Riley, and Jack a smile, though her eyes lingered on Jack for a moment longer than the others. She knew how close he and Mac were, and knew how worried he had to be.

“What do you mean, take a different approach?” James questioned, drawing the blonde’s attention away from the team and over at him.

“Simple. When you’re looking for someone, you need to see if you can figure out what they are planning to do and what they need in order to achieve it. You then put all the information together and that should help you narrow down the area where they might be. For example, if he was planning on creating a bomb, you would want to check places where they could get C-4 or other explosives and where they could create the bomb without being interrupted.” Cage explained with her matter-of-fact tone.

“We need to try and figure out what Walsh is up to and why he took Mac.” Leanna quickly realized what Cage was saying.

“Exactly.” The Australian confirmed, looking over her shoulder at Leanna.

“Revenge?” Bozer suggested before looking over at his best friend’s father, “He hates you for whatever reason you haven’t told us, and you and Mac did destroy his lab.”

“If he wanted revenge on both of us, he would’ve grabbed me too. Would’ve made me watch.” James added the last part quietly. If Walsh truly wanted to hurt him, wanted to break him, that would be the best and probably only way to do it. Being forced to watch his son being hurt and killed and being unable to do anything/

“Maybe he couldn’t find you, so he took Mac to draw you out.” Riley chimed in. After all, Mac and Jack traveled pretty much around the entire world searching for his Dad and couldn’t find him even though they worked in the same building. If he could do that, he could have stayed hidden from Walsh.

“Then he would’ve contacted us by now.” James told her, then added “No, there’s something else we’re missing.”

“Maybe he wants Mac for something else.” Jack finally spoke up, “He is genius after all, could do a lot of things that a guy like Walsh would want.”

“Doubt it. Walsh isn’t that clever.” James quickly dismissed the idea. While Walsh had his moments of being clever, he doubted the man had that much foresight.

“Hey, just because he’s not as smart and scientific as you, doesn’t mean he’s an idiot. He did manage to get that lab set up and hack into Phoenix.” Jack objected, feeling that since Oversight had said that Walsh was his Jack Dalton, he was insulting him as well. The fact that he was still angry at his boss for what he put Mac through didn’t help either.

“Wait, what’s this lab you keep mentioning?” Cage inquired, hoping to get everyone’s focus back to the task at hand.

“Walsh took the recipe of a drug that I had tried to create years ago. One that completely failed. He was trying to recreate it and make it work for a drug lord.” James answered, turning his gaze away from Dalton and turning it towards Cage.

“Did Walsh know that Mac was working for you, working with you?” The blonde then questioned.

“Yeah, Mac was with me when we destroyed his lab. I tricked him into letting Mac help me work and,” James immediately stopped as an expression like a deer-caught-in-the-headlights and horror came upon his face, “Oh no.”

“What?” Jack asked, feeling extremely worried and scared when he saw the look on Oversight’s face.

“It’s not just about revenge. I practically told him Mac was as smart as me, that Mac could help with the drug. And he knew that Mac worked for Phoenix. He could do both at the same time. Get the drug made and perfected without any flaws, and get revenge on both of us.” James revealed what he just realized.

“Okay, so we need to find a place where Walsh could keep someone captive without being interrupted, and where he could get everything he needs to recreate this drug. You still have a list of the ingredients and what he’d need, right?” Matty asked, joining the conversation, and James immediately nodded.

“Good, so we need to check all the stores and websites that sell them, see we can find Walsh buying any of it.” Matty ordered, causing everyone to get right to work, despite the late hour. There was no way they were wasting another second. They had to get their missing agent back, before Walsh either got what he wanted, or killed Mac.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

Mac could barely keep his eyes open, and it was not just because of exhaustion. Though he was really tired, Walsh had punched him several times in the face, with both hands so the bruises were on both sides of his face. And with those bruises, came two black eyes and cuts on his cheeks, forehead, and a bloody nose that was probably broken. He didn’t know for sure. His nose was bloody though, he knew that for sure. Actually, he was pretty sure his entire face was bloody.

And that was just his head. Walsh had also punched him several times in his ribs and stomach. Mac could only imagine the array of colours that were now on his skin under his T-shirt. The blonde was fairly certain at least one of his ribs were broken, having heard it crack loud enough to overpower the ringing in his ears that was caused by the blows to his head.

Walsh didn’t do much worse than that though, besides the usual asking if he had changed his mind and threats to do worse if he continued to refuse. After a while though, Walsh just up and left the room, leaving Mac alone, bloodied and tied to the chair. For a few minutes, the blonde tried to stay awake so he could try and get free, but the ropes were too tight, and knotted to well for him to try and untie them, especially when his head wouldn’t stop throbbing. It also didn’t help that he was pretty sure he kept passing out. However, he was still somewhat awake when the door opened and Walsh came back into the room.

“Wakey wakey baby MacGyver.” Mac heard Walsh say with a singsong voice that caused a shiver to run down Mac’s spine. Since he was so tired and out of it though, he doubted it was noticeable. Or at least, he hoped it wasn’t.

“If you’re about to ask me if I changed my mind, if I’ve ‘come to my senses’ in the last few hours, forget it. I haven’t, and I won’t be. Ever.” Mac instinctively told him as Walsh crouched down in front of him.

“That’s fine with me.” His Dad’s former partner replied, “While I do need that drug, I had been making progress before you and your Daddy blew up my lab. I can do it again.”

“Then why are you asking me to help if you don’t need it?” Mac wondered, feeling a little curious as to why Walsh was trying to get him to help make his father’s drug if he didn’t actually need his help.

“Because, you baby genius, would be able to do it faster. Plus, if you did decide to help me, it would be great revenge on your Daddy. The knowledge that the little kid he abandoned with the lame excuse of protection, turned around and helped his enemy would be devastating to him. After all, he tried to make you out to be just like him, didn’t he?” The older man responded with a curious look, as though he actually wanted an answer. When Mac didn’t give him one though, he sighed and stood up straight.

“But, since you aren’t willing to help, that means, I get to do this.” Before Mac could even wonder what Walsh meant by ‘this’, the man punched him the face again, causing the cut on his cheek which had already scabbed over, to reopen and bleed again.

“And this.” Walsh said before he slapped him across the face with his other hand hard enough to whip Mac’s head to the side.

“And a whole lot more. Like,” Walsh paused just long enough for Mac to turn his head back straight before he drove his fist into the blonde’s stomach and whispered in his ear, “this.”

“Had enough yet?” Walsh questioned as he pulled away and stood up to his full height. Though Mac was positive he was just barely conscious and knew he didn’t have much strength left before he did pass out, he managed to lift up his head and glare at his captor, who only smiled when he saw that the young man wasn’t backing down.

“Good, because honestly, I really don’t want to stop.” Walsh said with a sadistic grin as he pulled something out of his pocket, something that Mac instantly recognized even though he couldn’t see that well anymore. It was his red Swiss army knife, the one Jack gave him to replace the one his Grandfather had given him before a monkey stole it. When Walsh flicked the blade out, Mac looked up at the older man’s face, just in time to see his grin widen with joy and excitement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that a lot of people don’t like Cage, I’m not sure how I feel about her myself, but I just didn’t like the way the writers had her just go to recover from a gunshot wound and never bring her up again. So, I brought her back to give her character a better exit from the show, or team. Hope you all liked this chapter!


	5. Past Secrets

If there was one thing Jack Dalton hated, it was standing around doing nothing, while someone he cared about what had been kidnapped and was probably being tortured. For normal people with normal jobs, they were lucky. The odds of them having to go through anything like that were extremely slim. Unfortunately, Jack was not one of those people because his job wasn’t a normal one, at all. His job was to go on dangerous missions with Mac to protect his country and protect his partner as they did so, but now, his partner, his brother had been kidnapped and was going through who knows what and there wasn’t anything Jack could do about it.

Those who could do something about it were trying their best to find the missing, former, agent. Matty and Cage had gone to interrogate the gang members that had been with Jonah Walsh before they had been captured when Mac, Oversight, and Jack attacked and destroyed Walsh’s lab. They were hoping that the gang members might know something.

Bozer was with Leanna, trying to go over everything that happened in the last week to see if he could recall anything happening that was out of the ordinary. A stranger hanging around, something like that. Riley was going over all the security footage from around Mac and Bozer’s house again. Even though she hadn’t found anything the first few times, she decided to try again, but with a few programs to narrow down possible vehicles.

Oversight was at the main computer in the war room where Jack also was. Ever since Cage helped them all realize that if Walsh was again going to try and recreate his drug, he had been going through all his old notes to find out what his former partner would need and start searching places that sell the ingredients and equipment and hopefully find a commonality between them. Everyone had something to do except for Jack, and it was driving him nuts. For one of the few times in his life, Jack wished he had the same skill sets that everyone else on team had so he could be more useful, instead of just pacing around the room and asking his boss if he had found something.

“Found anything yet?” Jack asked, turning around to face his partner’s father again.

“In the last ten seconds since you asked me, no.” Oversight answered, keeping his eyes on the screen.

“Well, hurry up.” Jack said for what was probably the 50th time in the last ten minutes, causing James to finally look up at him in frustration and annoyance.

“You know Jack? It took me years to find Walsh before, it’s going to take some time for me to find him again.” James informed him. Jack immediately turned around to face his boss.

“Mac doesn’t have time, _sir_.” Jack added the last part sarcastically, but James didn’t care about that, at least, not at the moment. What he did care about though, was that fact that Jack seemed to be under the impression that he didn’t care about his own son.

“You think I don’t know that?” The father questioned with a shocked and furious tone.

“You sure are acting like it.” Jack snapped. Before his boss could respond in any way, the sniper added bitterly, “A lot of things can happen in a short amount of time, even as short as a few days, or even a few years. And most definitely in a few years, like your own kid growing up. But then again, you probably don’t even care about that.”

James stopped tapping the computer keys when he heard Jack say that. So far, the sniper hadn’t really confronted him about that yet, and he still somewhat wasn’t. James knew that Jack was trying to get him mad enough so that he would actually start the confrontation, that he had a lot of anger, frustration, and fear that he needed to get out. But Oversight also knew that Jack was most likely serious about what he just said.

As far as he knew, Mac hadn’t told Jack about what the head of the Phoenix Foundation told him, so it was completely possible for Jack to still think of what James did as abandonment. On the other hand, James also knew it was possible for both his son and his son’s partner to not believe him when he said he left for Mac’s protection. Either way though, James was not going to get upset with Jack, wasn’t going to start a fight that Jack clearly wanted him to start. That wouldn’t do anyone any good and would only distract them from finding Mac. And there was no way James was going to let anyone or anything get in the way of finding his son.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

After he received the Swiss army knife, Mac had kept it with him always. He loved it, treasured it, even though the one he had now was given to him by Jack and not his grandfather. Yet at this moment, Mac hated it, despised it. He never thought that would be possible, but apparently, he was wrong.

Over the last few hours, Walsh had been using the small blade to cut the blonde, not deep enough to cause any lasting damage, besides maybe a few scars, but enough to bleed, and hurt. Walsh would stop every now and then, leave the room for a few minutes to do who knows what, and Mac would enjoy those few, abuse-free moments, but he always came back and continued right where he left off. Mac wasn’t sure if there was any part of his body that wasn’t bleeding now. Not to mention, when his captor wasn’t using the blonde’s own tool against him, he went right back to punching him.

“I got to admit, baby MacGyver, you’re a lot stronger than you look. I would’ve thought you’d be begging for me to stop by now.” Walsh confessed as he stopped his abuse on his prisoner, “Guess that whole ‘never judge a book by its cover’ isn’t just talking about books.”

Mac didn’t say anything, wasn’t sure if he even could. A few of Walsh’s punches landed in his jaw, and it was now throbbing painfully. While he never had dislocated or broken his jaw before, he imagined that this was how it feels. So, he stayed quiet while Walsh pulled an old, wooden stool from the corner of the room that Mac hadn’t noticed until now, and dragged it until it was in front of the blonde.

“You know what I don’t get?” Walsh continued as he sat down on the stool, “Is why you seem to be so loyal to your Pops. I mean, he abandoned you when you were only ten years old. Never showed up again, never contacted you, not even when your Grandpa passed. And all this time, he was right under your nose and didn’t even bother to let you know about it. I know that had to hurt.”

“You know what I don’t get? Why you just up and left him and became a criminal.” Mac finally spoke up, not wanting the criminal to see how much his words were getting to him.

“You mean your Daddy still hasn’t told you that story?” Walsh actually seemed surprised that his former partner hadn’t filled his son in on what happened between them. When Mac shook his head, Walsh gave him a small grin.

“Well little MacGyver, you’re not the only person your old man has hurt, believe it or not.” Walsh revealed.

“How did he hurt you?” Mac asked, thinking that maybe if he could keep Walsh talking, not only would it give him a nice break from being beaten and cut, he might figure out a way to get free, or find some sort of weakness in his captor. Walsh was all too happy to tell him what James MacGyver did.

“It was a few years after we joined DXS, or as you now call it, the Phoenix Foundation. It was going great, until we got news of a robbery going down at a bank, the same bank Veronica Davis, my fiancée worked.” The older man paused, then looked up at Mac as he asked, “You’re Daddy never told you I was engaged, did he?”

“Didn’t think so.” Walsh mumbled to himself when Mac shook his head before he continued telling the story, “I begged James, begged Jones, the director of DXS at the time to let me go in, that I could get Ronnie, and all the other hostages out safely, but I was deemed unfit since she was my fiancée, they said I was ‘too close’ to the mission. But your Daddy, he came up with a plan, one that didn’t include me. You know what happened?” Mac didn’t have time to answer before Walsh continued.

“I saw one of the guards going to fire at us and the police officers outside, so I shot him first. Then everything went to h*ll. When we finally either killed or captured the robbers, I went inside to find that Ronnie, and two others were dead. They were caught in the crossfire.” Walsh then lowered his head, but even with that, and his two swollen eyes, Mac could clearly see the pain in his captor’s eyes and hear the pain in his voice.

“I was off for two months after that, but when I went back to work, I was put on the desk duty. They said that I should myself to be unreliable since I was ordered to get out of the way but I engaged the criminals instead. Jones refused to even hear me out since there was no proof that one of the robbers was going to shoot at us. I went to your Daddy, to get him to listen, but you know what your Daddy did?” Walsh then questioned, raising his head to look his prisoner in the eyes again.

When Mac slowly shook his head again, Walsh learned forward and said, “Nothing, he did nothing. He said he had always known I was a loose canon and that if I had just trusted him, that Ronnie and the other two bank workers would still be alive, that it was a miracle no one else got hurt or killed.”

“So that night, I packed my bag and left, and I never looked back.” Walsh finished the story, leaning back a little carefully as the stool didn’t have a back and he obviously didn’t want to fall backwards onto the floor.

“You know, a lot of people get money, protection, and safety outside of the law. The law only restrains people, keeps them from doing what needs to be done. You and your Daddy might think the law protects people, but in reality, the only thing it actually does is protect the lawbreakers, especially if they are smart lawbreakers. So that’s where I went.” Walsh started again when Mac kept his mouth shut.

“You’re a smart kid blondie. Maybe even smarter than you’re Daddy. You could be a really good criminal. Question is, are you smart enough to realize the same truth you’re Daddy and people like him completely ignore and deny? Trust me when I tell you this, it’s better on the other side of the law.” Walsh then questioned, leaning forward again. At that, Mac again raised his gaze up to meet his captor’s.

“No, no it’s not. And if you truly think that being a criminal is a good thing, then you’re the dumb one.” Mac finally spoke up, his voice leaving no room for argument. Walsh stared at him for a few seconds, before nodding in acceptance and standing up off the stool. After pushing it back up against the wall.

“That’s a shame that you think that. For you I mean, because that means, I know get to use this.” Walsh finally responded as he turned around to look at Mac, revealing a large syringe in his hand. Before the former agent could even process it, the older man’s arm shot forward, stabbed the needle into his prisoner’s neck and pushed down on the plunger as Mac screamed.


	6. The Screwup

Jack and Oversight were no longer in the war room by themselves, which was probably a good thing because the longer Jack saw the way Mac’s father kept himself calm and collected, how he showed no fear or worry over his son, the more he wanted to punch the man’s face. Bozer and Leanna came in about half an hour after Jack made his comment about how the older man left his son alone for years. Apparently, he couldn’t remember seeing anyone or anything out of the ordinary in the last few weeks at all, meaning that since Walsh was careful enough to not be seen, the fingerprints on the cloth was most likely done on purpose.

Riley then joined them after finding nothing on the security cameras, again. While she hadn’t been exactly hopeful, she still felt extremely disappointed and a bit like a failure when she still found nothing. So, she made her way back to the war room to give Jack, Bozer, Leanna, and Oversight the bad news. Bozer and Jack immediately assured her that it was alright and that they will find Mac, but she still felt like a failure. Not long after she joined them though, the door opened again and the two other members of the team came in. 

“I think we might have found a way to contact Jonah Walsh.” Cage announced as she strode into the room the room with Matty.

“What? How?” Bozer asked as everyone turned to face the two women who just joined them.

“Matty and I went down to interrogate one the men that were captured when Walsh’s lab was destroyed. Took a little convincing, but we finally managed to get him to talk.” Cage informed them.

“What did he say?” Jack asked, desperate and hoping with everything he had that they had learned something that would help them find his missing partner.

“That Walsh buys a lot of his burner phones at the same time so he always has another handy for when he has to ditch one.” Matty chimed in.

“That’s smart.” Riley commented. She had known that if a person has to dump their burner phone, they could be found when they bought another one, as whoever was searching for them could just keep on eye on the places and people who sold them. She had done it before on missions. But if the person already had several burner phones, there was no need to buy any if he or she had to ditch one.

“Yeah, unless of course you let those working for you write down the phone numbers so they can get a hold of you if something goes wrong.” Matty replied with a sly grin.

“That’s dumb.” Leanna scoffed.

“Yeah, it’s more than likely Walsh would have gotten rid of them by now and have bought new ones.” James joined in the conversation, positive that his former partner wouldn’t keep anything that could let any type of law enforcement track him down, especially if people he worked with were captured.

“Maybe, maybe not.” Jack responded, shooting a small glare at their boss. Oversight glared back for a moment, but he said nothing to his employee’s obvious attempt to anger him.

“Okay, let’s try them, see what we can find.” James said, turning his attention back to the rest of the team. Cage nodded and came over to him, handing him the list of phone numbers that the prisoner had given them.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

After grabbing a bite to eat and a few beers, Walsh decided to head back to the room where he was keeping James MacGyver’s kid to see how he was doing. According to the cartel scientist who created the drug he had used on the kid, it should only last about two hours, three at most, so it should have worn off by now. But as he started walking down the hall towards the room, he heard a phone ringing.

He headed back into the living room where his burner phones and the cell phone that Luis Gomez, leader of the cartel who he had partnered with, used to contact him. Walsh quickly realized that it was just one of the burner phones, but when he saw that, suspicion started settling into his stomach. He had been this task almost completely alone. Besides having some help breaking Angus MacGyver’s security system, he had done everything himself, so no one should be contacting him.

Despite that though, he picked up the phone with a slightly annoyed tone, “Alright, who is this and why are you calling me?”

_“It’s me Walsh, and I’m calling you because you took my son and my agent.”_ Walsh paused when he heard the person on the other end of the phone answer. Despite being apart for years, and only being reunited two weeks ago for an hour at most, he easily recognized that voice.

“Jimmy MacGyver. I must say, while I’m not surprised to talk to you so soon, I had thought I would be the one contacting you. How did you get this number?” Walsh wondered. He had been thinking of contacting his old partner if his kid still refused to help, thinking that maybe the man actually cared enough about his own son to come over and give him a hand in exchange for baby MacGyver’s freedom, but he wasn’t ready to make that call yet.

_“A source we didn’t actually expect to be honest, but you know as well as I do, people can surprise you.”_ James answered.

“Ain’t that the truth.” Walsh commented, but before he could say anything else, James spoke again.

_“Where’s my son Walsh?”_ The head of the Phoenix Foundation demanded, his tone making it clear he was in a mood for any kind of mind games. Walsh however, didn’t care. After all, he was the one who had the hostage which meant that he called the shots, not his former partner.

“What makes you think I took your boy?” Walsh wondered with a grin, enjoying playing a bit with the uptight agent.

_“Because the cloth doused with ether that was used to knock out my son had your fingerprints on it.”_ James replied with a knowing tone. Walsh wasn’t surprised to hear that. He knew what he was doing. Though he kept from leaving his fingerprints all over the house, he didn’t even try to keep them off the cloth. After all, hard to leave a message for someone if they had no idea who left it.

“Well, you know, you really should keep a closer eye on him James. One day he might just disappear on you like you did to him.” James told him as he now began walking towards the hallway which led to the room where Angus was.

_“Walsh, you tell me where my son is, now.”_ Walsh’s grin turned to a smirk when he heard the firm yet desperate tone from the older MacGyver.

“Can’t do that buddy. I haven’t gotten what I need just yet. Maybe when I’m done, you can have your boy back.” Walsh responded, smirk becoming wider and wider.

“ _Walsh,”_ James tone held an unspoken warning, but Walsh ignored it.

“You know what I find strange?” The former DXS agent asked, but before James could answer, Walsh continued, “That after abandoning your boy and staying away for years, you suddenly care about him.”

_“Don’t tell me what you I feel. You have no idea what I feel.”_ Walsh raised his eyebrows when he heard the anger in James’s voice. While James never liked being told what to do, what to feel, and what he does feel, it seemed to the criminal he had hit a bit of a soft spot, especially when James demanded again, this time with a furious tone, _“Now give me back my son.”_

“No can do.” Walsh replied, but then added, “But, I’ll see if he wants to talk to you.”

He lowered the phone so he could unlocked and open the door, then went inside. The blonde still looked a little out of it, but Walsh knew that it was mostly exhaustion, especially when he saw the clarity in the kid’s bright blue eyes. He walked over to mini MacGyver, crouched down in front of him as held the phone out.

“Say ‘hi’ to your Dad.” Walsh told him before putting the phone right against Angus’s ear.

“Dad?” That was the only word Walsh let him get out before he pulled the phone away as two voices on the other end said, _“Angus,”_ and _“Mac,”_.

He had no idea who was the person who said ‘Mac’, but he didn’t really care. He put the phone against his own ear and teased, “Nope, me now. I’d let you talk to him more, but I’m not sure he can talk back due to a broken jaw.”

_“You b*****d!”_ The voice Walsh didn’t recognized shouted as Walsh left the room, closing and locking the door again. Despite how terrible the kid looked, he still didn’t trust him to be left alone in an unlocked room.

_“Walsh, I am going to find you, and if I find him harmed in any way, you’re dead.”_ James threatened, angrier than Walsh could ever remember him being.

“You would have to find us first partner. Good luck.” Walsh wished him before he hung up the phone. He then headed back into the bedroom he had been staying and immediately started backing his stuff. Though he wasn’t as smart as James MacGyver, he wasn’t an idiot, he knew that James would be having someone trace the call, which meant that he had to get the kid, and get out of dodge.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

Back at the Phoenix Foundation in the war room, James hung up the phone when he realized that Walsh had already disconnected the call. Behind him stood Jack, who Bozer was still holding to keep him from doing something stupid. When he heard Walsh saw that Mac’s jaw was broken, the sniper charged forward as if he was about punch something or someone, so Bozer quickly grabbed him and pulled him back. Beside them, stood Matty, Leanna, and Cage, while Riley sat on a chair nearby, her fingers typing furiously on her laptop.

“Please tell me I kept him on long enough for you to trace the call.” James practically begged Riley, the calm and focused expression barely hiding how worried and shaken he actually was from talking to Walsh and Mac.

“Yes you did.” Riley answered before looking up from her laptop with a smile as she added, “And I got it.”

**2016MACGYVER2016**

Mac wasn’t exactly sure what was going on outside the room he was trapped in. He already was wondering what was happening outside his prison, but the pain-filled drug that Walsh had given him had messed with his head. It wasn’t anything dangerous, Mac was sure of that. Since his captor still wanted something from him, he wouldn’t have done anything that would cause permanent damage to him. That didn’t mean that the drug that flooded his system didn’t hurt though. It was like fire running through his veins before making him feel like he was being ripped apart from the inside.

The former Phoenix agent wasn’t sure how long he was under the effects of the drug. He had lost any and all sense of time, but he was thinking it was probably only for a few hours. When the drug finally did wear off, Mac found that he was alone again. He tried to force himself to pull against the ropes still tying his wrists to the arms of the chair, but he had no energy. He was exhausted, his entire body felt heavy, and every movement he did make aggravated the cuts and bruises he had sustained before Walsh drugged him.

It was only a few minutes later that Walsh entered the room, but not to torture him again like Mac thought. Instead, he held a cell phone in his hand and pressed it to Mac’s ear and said, ‘say hi to your dad.’ Not sure what would happen if he stayed quiet, he obeyed, though the only word he got out was ‘Dad’, before the older man pulled the phone away, but not before Mac could hear both his Dad and Jack call out for him on the other end.

Mac sighed in brief moment of relief at the sound of Jack’s voice, but Walsh didn’t notice because once he pulled the phone away, he held it to his own ear and began talking with Oversight while he walked out of the room, shutting and locking the door behind him. Mac then tried to bring himself to escape again, but the small amount of energy he had gained from hearing his father’s and Jack’s voices was still no where near the amount he needed. Not long though after his Dad’s former partner left his cell, the door opened again.

“How are you feeling mini Mac?” Walsh questioned as he came back into the room only minutes after he left. This time, the phone was gone and a syringe in his hand instead which caused the blonde to instinctively tense.

“Just peachy.” Mac mumbled sarcastically, his jaw still throbbing painfully making it hard to talk. Walsh nodded though, letting him know that his captor did hear him. Walsh then pulled out a small vial filled with a clear liquid from his pocket and jabbed the needle into it before pulling on the plunger, filling the syringe with whatever drug was in the vial.

“Well, as much as I need your cooperation, we can’t stay here.” Walsh said once he filled the syringe and threw away the now empty vial before coming over to Mac.

“You know, you won’t be able to run for long.” Mac forced himself to say despite the pain.

“Why? Your Daddy hasn’t been able to find me for years, what makes you think he will this time? Because I have you? I thought you were smart enough to know your Daddy doesn’t care about you.” Walsh replied, looking somewhat entertained and mildly confused.

“It’s not my Dad you have to worry about. It’s my partner, and trust me when I tell that once he finds us, you’re a dead man.” Mac told him with a smug grin.

Walsh stared at him for a moment before he reached out and stabbed the syringe into Mac’s neck. He grunted, but it wasn’t the drug that Walsh had used earlier. Instead, it was sedative, as Mac quickly realized as his head suddenly felt heavy and everything became foggy. Before he completely lost consciousness though, he heard Walsh whisper in his ear, “Well, lucky for me, he won’t find us.”

**2016MACGYVER2016**

In Jack’s opinion, they were taking too long to get to Mac’s location. The second Riley gave them the location she found from the phone trace, Jack, James, Cage, Riley, Bozer, and Leanna ran down to the Phoenix’s SUVs with the TAC team who had gotten ready in record time. The sniper knew they were going as fast as they could, but due to distance, it still took them half-an-hour to get there.

When they did finally arrive at the large, two-story house that Riley said was the place where the phone was, the TAC team immediately broke through the front and back door and entered the house. James, Jack, and Cage followed right behind them while Bozer, Leanna, and Riley waited outside as they hadn’t gotten a chance to grab any weapons and vests. Plus, they weren’t cleared yet to use weapons for the Phoenix either.

“Mac! Mac!” Jack shouted as he searched the building for his missing partner. There was no answer however.

James broke away from the team and his son’s partner as he walked down a hallway. He quickly spotted a door that looked like wood on the outside, but he could tell it was just painted steel. What really drew his attention to this particular door though, was the padlock that hung unlocked on the latch. James took a deep breath, then opened the door.

The room was darker than the rest of the house, and appeared damp, as though it was a cellar even though it was on the first floor. In the middle of the room, was a metal chair that was bolted to the floor. Loose strands of thick rope were still wrapped around the arms of the chair and despite the distance, Oversight could see the ropes were a bit bloodstained. There was blood on the floor as well as the chair. The father felt his heart clench tightly, not just from the sight of the blood, but also from the sight that the chair was unoccupied. They were too late. His son and Walsh were gone. 

“He’s not here.” James stated as he stared at the empty chair that he knew held his son at some point.

“What, how can he not be here?” Jack demanded, coming over to his boss. However, he quickly spotted what was all in the empty room and immediately paled at the sight.

“He was, but not anymore.” James explained, “Walsh must’ve taken him after he hung up the phone.”

“How do we find him now?” Jack mumbled the question as he tried to think of how they would be able to rescue Mac if they had no idea where Walsh would have taken him. After all, they only found this place because they had managed to contact the criminal who had kidnapped Mac and track him that way. Now that Walsh knew that the Phoenix Foundation had gotten a hold of his burner phones numbers, he would’ve gotten rid of them.

James however, heard the question and answered, “Well, he will still need to get his lab set up, since this place obviously isn’t it.”

Without another word, Oversight strode away from the room, leaving Jack alone to stare at the room that had been Mac’s prison cell. His eyes ran over it, taking in every detail, including the bloody ropes and the blood on the chair and floor. Beginning to feel sick to his stomach, Jack turned and moved to catch up to his boss, following him out of the house where Bozer, Leanna, and Riley were waiting.

“He wasn’t there.” James informed them before turning to Riley, “Check what you find against Luis Gomez and his associates.”

“Why him?” Riley asked, pushing down the shock and disappointment she felt that they still had not found Mac.

“Because, I figured that Gomez was just a silent partner in this. That he was funding everything, and he probably is, but if he knows that the hunt has been restarted for Walsh, then he or one of his cartel members would be the ones buying it and setting everything up.” Walsh explained to her as he started to head towards one of the SUVs.

“Got it.” Riley replied.

As if he suddenly remembered something, James stopped and turned back to face the hacker, “And check any and all security in the area. Odds are, we’ll find footage of Walsh coming and leaving. We might be able to track him down.”

After he said that, the head of the Phoenix got into one of the SUVs. Riley looked over at Jack, shooting him a reassuring look before she also climbed into the vehicle. Bozer and Leanna looked disappointed and worried but stayed silent as they climbed into another SUV. Jack was about to do the same when someone behind him called out his name.

“Jack?” Cage called out to him, causing the older man to turn his head to face her, seeing her exiting the building as well. When she saw she had his attention, she said, “We’re going to find him.”

Jack nodded, though he wasn’t sure he fully believed her. The Australian then continued to make her way to the SUVs, but Jack didn’t follow her. Her words echoed in his ears loudly. They were the same words she had said when Murdoc kidnapped Mac. True, she was right, they had found and saved him, but that was only because Mac escaped the assassin first. If he hadn’t had done that, they might have never have found him. He might actually be dead right now.

Now, they were practically in the same boat. A trail growing colder and colder, and Mac still a hostage. Would they really have to wait for Mac to escape first before they could save him? Either way though, Jack wasn’t going to stop. Even if the trail was beyond freezing cold, he wouldn’t stop until he got his partner back.

The sniper looked back at the house where his partner was just half an hour ago and whispered, “Hang on Mac. Just hang on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I have never used, never even seen a burner phone, and I don’t fully know how they work. I’m going off what I’ve seen in TV shows, more specifically an episode in Castle. So if I did this all wrong, I’m sorry. I hope you enjoy this chapter


	7. Another Lead

About two hours after they got back from the house where Walsh had been keeping Angus MacGyver, Riley, Jack, and Bozer were in the war room, waiting for Riley to go through all the information she had about Jonah Walsh, Luis Gomez, and the drug that they were trying to recreate. Bozer however, was no longer awake. Having been up nearly 36 hours, he had finally fallen asleep on one of the chairs in the room. The other members of the team had gone back to where they were keeping the prisoners to see if any of them had any more information about Walsh.

“How’s it going Riley?” James inquired as he entered the war room, lowering his voice a little when he saw that Bozer was asleep on the chair, snoring lightly.

“Still a work in progress. I managed to narrow down what type of vehicle Walsh has by comparing security images and videos near the house where Mac was being held within the half hour between the phone call and you guys arriving, to the images and footage of Mac and Bozer’s house the night Mac was taken, but haven’t found the right one yet, so I can’t fully track it.” Riley answered quietly, very aware that Bozer was sleeping.

James nodded, letting her know that he heard her before asking, “And what about checking Luis Gomez’s and Walsh’s associates? Find anything there?”

“I’m finding a few of Gomez’s, but he is one smart cartel leader. The police in Mexico don’t even know where exactly he lives, and he could have a lot more friends and cartel members than the police are aware of. And Walsh, well, we hardly have any information about him since he left the Phoenix years ago, back when it was DXS.” The hacker replied, trying to keep from venting her frustration at how slow everything was going. Finding people on the computer was her one of her top skill sets, and she was failing, and the longer she continued to fail, the longer it took them to find Mac.

Oversight then came over to the young woman and handed her a flashdrive as he said, “Here, this will give you every security clearance you need to get into all of our files and records, as well as the FBI’s, the CIA’s, and even Interpol. It should help speed it up.”

Riley instinctively took what she was offered before she replied, “Thanks.”

James nodded in response, then looked around the room. Besides Bozer asleep in one of the chairs, the only other person he saw was Jack, who was standing in front of the screen that showed exactly what was appearing on Riley’s laptop. The sniper hadn’t said a word the entire time he had been in the room and the boss wondered why. Ever since they found out that his son was missing, it seemed that Jack had been constantly making snide remarks to him about Angus, but now, the man was completely silent. 

“You okay Dalton?” James asked, coming to stand beside him though he kept his eyes on the screen just like Jack was.

“It’s not me you should be worried about, sir, it’s your son that was kidnapped, not me.” Jack replied with a quiet yet angry tone. James took a deep breath but again, refused to respond.

“I don’t even know why I keep thinking you should be more worried about Mac. You’re the one who up and ditched him on his tenth birthday and had never gone and see him or even tried to in over a decade. Even when he started working for you, you never even bothered to let him know about it. Or when he quit. You just decided to keep acting like a ghost.” Jack snapped, though he also kept his voice fairly quiet due to the sleeping member of the team.

“That’s not true actually.” James broke the awkward silence. Jack looked over at his boss, but before he could ask what exactly it was that he said that he had apparently gotten wrong, Oversight said, “I had seen Angus once, after I left, before he came to me wanting to quit.”

Jack furrowed his brow, trying to remember if Mac had ever mentioned seeing his Dad after he left, but came up with nothing. As far as he knew, the kid had never seen his father since the day he left. So that meant, Mac had just decided not to tell him about it, or James was lying, or Mac had no idea about it.

“Cairo. I saw him after your guys’ mission in Cairo.” James revealed when Jack remained silent, still keeping his eyes on the screen. Riley, from her place behind her laptop, looked up at the two men when she heard that just in time to see Jack tense up at the mention of the Egyptian capital.

Though she had head Mac and Jack’s mission in the city was their worst one, that it was bad enough that they don’t come to work on ‘Cairo day’, as the sniper dubbed it, she had never learned what exactly happened that day. She had wondered, and asked, but nobody told her anything. Part of the hacker wanted to ask again now, but she kept her mouth shut, not wanting to get in between Mac’s biological father and the father who had actually been taking care of him for years.

Jack was stunned into silence by his boss’s words, though instinctively tensed at the mention of the city that almost killed them. He remembered every event that happened in Cairo as if it was yesterday, though the days following were a bit fussy as they recovered from the mission. One thing that Jack was sure about despite the blurry memories though, was the fact that Oversight never came to see his son.

The older MacGyver took the sniper’s silence as either permission to continue or as him waiting for an explanation, so James decided to give it and continued, “It was after you, Angus, and Nikki were brought back to the States, when you and my son were transported to the hospital. I went to visit him in the middle of the night when you were both asleep. I, I didn’t want him to see me yet, to know that I was his boss but, after how badly he was hurt, I couldn’t, not, see him.

“I stayed for the rest of the night before leaving early that morning so no one would see me, but I was there. It was the first time I truly regretted leading him into this business. But then, he just got up and got back to work. He wasn’t going to let a bad mission and a bunch of injuries stop him. I know that you hate what I did, the choices I made, but you can’t deny that as dangerous as this job is, Angus was born for it.”

Jack then turned his head to look at his boss, about to deny what the man said just because it was a chance to challenge Oversight, as well as it was a chance to challenge Oversight, as well as a chance to show the parent that just because he directed Mac into what direction he should take his life and watched from the shadows doesn’t mean he knows his son, but suddenly found that he couldn’t. Sure, he didn’t think that Oversight really knew his son like he claimed, but Jack found he actually couldn’t deny that James was right. It was like Mac was born for working at Phoenix.

Though the kid was young and a bit of a danger-magnet, Jack had seen within his first week at working for the Phoenix Foundation, when it was DXS, that Mac had found a place here. A job where he could utilize all of his skills, help people, make a difference. Not only that, he found a home, a family. It was why Jack had been trying to get Mac to come back. He belonged here.

“I got something.” Riley told them, causing both Jack and James to turn to face. When she saw she had their attention, she said, “You were right. Luis Gomez is taking care of the supplies needed to make a new lab and recreate the drug.”

“So if Walsh is on the run, he’s heading to where Gomez has that lab set up. You have a location?” Jack asked, tone rushed and desperate.

“Yup.” Riley informed them with a slight smirk, now feeling completely in her element and in control once again.

James also smiled before he said, “Then let’s go.”

**2016MACGYVER2016**

Mac woke to darkness. The last thing he remembered was being stabbed with a needle, again, and Walsh saying something about them not being found. As Mac tried to move his head, he quickly realized that the darkness was because of a black bag on his head, and that he was still sitting in a chair. It was different though. Before, his hands were tied to the arms of the chair, now though, his hands were tied behind the chair’s back. Mac tried to move his wrists to see if he could free his hands, but he stopped when he heard footsteps coming towards them.

“Wakey wakey, baby MacGyver.” Mac heard Walsh’s singsong voice say as he ripped the bag off his head. Quickly regaining his senses, Mac looked around the room. It seemed like he was in a warehouse of some kind, but he wasn’t completely sure. There were tables scattered around the room filled with medical and science equipment, and there were at least three other guards besides Walsh with them.

“Where am I?” Mac asked, turning his attention over to Walsh.

“You are our new lab.” The bomb expert turned his head over to the right when he heard the answer coming from a voice that he didn’t recognize. The person who answered came into the room, coming over to stand beside Walsh. He looked about the same age as his captor, but had darker hair, and more of it, and was slimmer than Walsh.

“So, this is your former partner’s son, one of the people who have caused you such trouble.” The man said after examining the blonde for a moment, then added, “You sure don’t look like much.”

“Looks can be deceiving.” Mac responded, though his voice was a little muffled as he tried to talk without moving his sore jaw too much.

“Very true.” The man, who Mac assumed to be Walsh’s boss Luis Gomez, told him. He then took a few steps closer to the young man, then bent down a little so he was closer to the blonde and said, “I hear you still refuse to help us with our endeavour.”

“You hear right.” Mac said, trying to match the man’s stare, though it was harder than it should’ve been due to both of his eyes being swollen.

“Pity, I had hoped that Jonah would have gotten a more cooperative answer from you by now. Guess he will have to continue with his persuasion until you say yes.” Gomez told him before standing upright again and turning his back to the hostage and started to walk away. He stopped though when he reached Walsh.

“Don’t kill him,” Gomez whispered before glancing back at the blonde. He then turned back to Walsh and added, “yet.”

“Got it.” Walsh replied with a slightly sadistic smile, that grew larger when he turned to face Mac. The blonde tried not to squirm in his seat at the smile as he steeled himself for whatever was going to happen next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that we know very little about what actually happened in Cairo, but in my mind, and from what I remember of what they said happened in Cairo, I’m assuming that both Jack and Mac got badly hurt and nearly died, which was why they were both in the hospital. Hope you all liked this chapter!


	8. Storming the Warehouse

Luis Gomez sat on an old couch in one of the small rooms in the warehouse all alone, the old TV playing an 80’s movie that the cartel leader was only somewhat watching as he finished another cup of the Scotch he had brought with him. It had been about three to four hours since he left Jonah Walsh with their prisoner, Angus MacGyver, and so far, he had not received any news that the boy had changed his mind about helping them. Gomez was starting to see that there wasn’t going to be anyway to get Angus to work with them, unless they had some sort of leverage that is, which they don’t.

As Gomez refilled his cup with the Scotch on the table in front of him, he heard the door open. He glanced over his shoulder to see that it was Walsh, and he looked a bit discouraged. Gomez quickly finished filling his cup before he said, “Still nothing from him?”

“I told you, he’s tougher than he looks. Seems he’s a lot more like his daddy than even he knows.” Walsh replied, coming up behind his boos. Leaning on the back of the couch, he saw a strange expression on Gomez’s face, causing him to ask, “What?”

“You have until midnight to get him to agree. If he still doesn’t, kill him.” Gomez ordered, keeping his gaze on the screen.

“That’s only another two hours.” Walsh immediately protested. While he knew that if the kid hadn’t broken yet, he wouldn’t unless they tried another method, which Walsh was all to willing to do, but he needed time in order to attempt the other ways of forcing James’s son to cooperate.

“And you’ve had nearly three days to convince him that helping us will be in his best interest. And not only have you still failed, you ended up having to run from your old partner. Disposing of the boy is our best way to get them off our back, if he still refuses to help.” Gomes responded before glaring over at Walsh and adding, “I’m not wasting any more time on this than necessary.”

Walsh could plainly see that the cartel leader wasn’t going to back down, which did make the former DXS agent a little annoyed, as he really wanted to get the kid on his side because he knew how that could destroy James. And if he still didn’t, then he could use the kid against his father which would be some nice payback, but killing the baby MacGyver would still be a nice form of revenge. So, a little reluctantly, Walsh agreed, “Alright.”

As the former agent turned to leave the room to head back to where he was keeping their hostage, the sound of guns firing from outside filled the air. Walsh turned to Gomez when he heard his boss ask, “What’s that?”

“We’ve been found.” Walsh answered as a feeling of panic surged through his stomach. Without another second, he ran towards his hostage.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

“We’re approaching the warehouse!” James yelled to the members of the TAC team in the SUV as well as Cage and Jack when he spotted the building that Riley had found to be the lab that Gomez and Walsh had set up and was most likely where they were holding Mac.

He saw the team and Cage nod, but when he looked over at Jack, who was behind the wheel of the vehicle, he saw a focused, determined expression, but he was clutching the wheel tight enough that his knuckles were white, causing Oversight to ask, “You ready for this?”

“Getting that kid back, I’m more than ready for that.” Jack answered with a short tone, slightly annoyed that his boss actually felt the need to ask something like that.

“Good, cause here we go.” James stated as the reached the abandoned building.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

Mac had no idea what exactly was going on outside. He had been drifting in and out of consciousness for a while now, or at least, he figured it was a while. He knew that that was not a good thing, and was either caused by a concussion, lack of sleep, or something else, like blood loss. The latest beating that Walsh had given him had caused several of his cuts to reopen.

The sound of gunfire however, pulled him back to awareness. He looked around to see that the guards that were in the room with him before were gone, as was Walsh. He hoped that the gunfire and lack of guards meant that Jack and the rest of the team had arrived and were here to rescue him. He turned his head towards the door when he heard it open, but instead of his rescuers coming for him, he saw Walsh entering the room and coming over to him.

“You try anything mini MacGyver, you’re dead.” Walsh said before he cut the ropes tying the blonde’s hands behind the chair.

“You really think you’re going to get away?” Mac wondered with small smile. If there really was a rescue team coming for him, then Jack would definitely be with them. And if Jack was here, then Walsh was definitely dead.

“I will with you as my hostage.” Walsh replied with cold eyes as he grabbed Mac’s arms and pulled him to his feet before wrapping an arm around the young man’s chest so he could hold his hostage in front of him as a human shield. He then pulled Mac out of the room.

Unfortunately for his Dad’s former partner however, they only got about five steps away from the door before Mac’s Dad and three other agents that Mac recognized came to stand in their path. All of them, even Oversight, holding guns which were pointed at them, causing Walsh to pull out his own handgun and put the end of the barrel against the side of his captive’s head.

“Let him go Walsh.” James ordered, staring straight into his former partner’s eyes, not showing a twinge of fear whatsoever, and holding the gun firmly in his hand. Mac was surprised to see his Dad actually have a gun, since as far as he knew, the leader of the Phoenix Foundation didn’t use weapons, or was out in the field. But Mac brushed that thought away as he looked for Jack, yet couldn’t see him.

“How about you give me a few thousand of untraceable bills, a car, and about a 12 hour head start? Then I’ll drop your kid off somewhere and leave you a message of where he is.” Walsh suggested with a slight smile as he tighten his hold on Mac, causing him to wince as it pushed against his sore and broken ribs and the cuts on his body.

“You really think I’m going trust you with my son? Forget it. Let him go.” James repeated the order, his tone a lot harsher than before when he saw his son since in pain.

“Sorry, can’t do that.” Walsh responded. James didn’t say anything else, because from the corner of his eye, he spotted a certain sniper take position on the left side of the room, giving him a clear line of sight of the target and his hostage.

_BANG!_

Walsh’s eyes almost immediately clouded over as the gunshot rang out, the bullet his him right in the head. His body went completely limp, freeing Mac, but as the blonde was still weak from the blood loss and his injuries, he fell to the floor along with Walsh’s dead body.

“Mac!” Jack called out when he saw his brother fall to the floor.

Jack rushed over to where Mac laid sprawled flat on his stomach on the hard ground. The blonde hadn’t moved at all since he fell when Walsh let go of him, and it frightened Jack to his very core, as did the sight of blood all over the kid’s body. The sniper quickly reached the young man’s side, and he crouched down beside him before turning him over onto his back. Seeing the blonde appeared unconscious, Jack was about to shake his shoulder to try and wake him, but another hand reached out and pushed his away from Mac.

“Careful. We don’t know how badly injured he is yet. Moving him in anymore might make it worse.” Jack turned his head to see that MacGyver senior was beside him, it was his hand that had pushed Jack’s hand away. The sniper knew that James was right, knew that if Mac had any broken bones, especially ribs, any wrong movement could dislodge them and cause more internal injuries, but that didn’t stop Jack from shooting a death glare at MacGyver senior.

The man had been so distant and detached ever since they realized Mac had been taken and Jack was sick of it. He had somewhat understood and begrudgingly accepted it. After all, freaking out in fear and panic wasn’t going to help them find their missing friend and family member. They needed to have cool heads and needed to think clearly, but MacGyver senior was taking it to a whole other level. Jack was starting to wonder if the older man even cared about his son, but as he turned his head to glare at his boss, Jack saw the fear and worry clear as day in the father’s eyes as he examined his son.

“It’s not that bad.” Mac told them with a quiet and painfilled as he slowly opened his swollen eyes. He had heard Jack yelling his name, and his Dad telling him to be careful, but the fall had stunned him enough that it took a few seconds for him to snap out of it. Though with the way his head was throbbing and how blurry his vision was, he had a feeling he wouldn’t be awake for much longer.

“Well, considering your track record with injuries, I think I’m going to have the nice EMTs who are on their way take a look.” Jack replied with a smile. After spending days worried about his partner, he was beyond thrilled to have the kid back and that he was awake, despite the injuries.

When Mac’s eyes slipped closed and didn’t open again however, the panic and fear immediately took over the sniper again. He put his hand on the kid’s shoulder and shook him gently as called out, “Mac? Mac?”

James lowered his head closer to his son’s for a few seconds, then put two fingers against the blonde’s neck. After another few seconds, he turned his head to face Jack and said, “He’s breathing, and his pulse is strong. He’ll be alright.”


	9. A Father's Realization

After the EMTs arrived, along with Bozer, Leanna, Riley, and Matty, who came later with the paramedics, they got Mac, who remained unconscious, into the ambulance with Jack, who was refusing to leave his partner for a moment unless absolutely necessary. Unfortunately for Jack, that moment came only about ten minutes later, as they were that close to the nearest hospital. The doctors and nurses immediately took Mac in to run tests to see what injuries he had and if surgery was needed. That was over an hour ago.

Riley, Bozer, and James arrived not long after Jack did with Mac, having followed right behind them. Cage and Matty stayed behind to close up the scene and deal with those the TAC team had managed to arrest. Together, the team at the hospital sat in the waiting room in silence. James was fiddling with his Swiss army knife, Bozer was staring at the floor, lost in thought, Riley was on her phone, trying to distract herself, while Jack was staring at the clock, bouncing his leg in an attempt to keep himself from barging through the hospital in search of the doctor and Mac.

“He’ll be okay Jack.” Riley whispered when she noticed how worried and tightly wound Jack was at the moment.

“I know.” Jack responded, though his leg didn’t stop bouncing and he continued to grip the chair arms so tight that his hands were white. The hacker then put her hand overtop of Jack’s in an effort to comfort him, and the older man turned his head to give her a small and appreciative smile.

“Family of Angus MacGyver?” Everyone immediately turned their attention over to who had spoke, and saw that a doctor had entered the waiting room. They all got to their feet and walked over to him.

“How’s my son?” James asked once he reached the doctor.

“Very lucky. He’s sustained several cuts, and lost a fair amount of blood, and they have become infected. We’ve got him on antibiotics, but the infections aren’t very serious.” The doctor answered before continuing, “He has also three broken ribs and a dislocated jaw which we had to wire shut, and a minor concussion, but other than that, he’s fine.”

“He’ll be okay?” Jack needed to hear the man say again. 

“He’ll be just fine as soon as the antibiotics clean up the infected cuts and his jaw heals.” the doctor assured them again with a smile, causing everyone to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Can we see him?” Jack then asked, needing to see his partner for himself.

“You are all family?” The doctor questioned, looking over at the members of the team.

“Yes, we are his family.” James replied without a moment of hesitation, causing everyone to look at their boss with a mix of surprise and appreciation.

The doctor didn’t look very convinced, but didn’t argue at all, as he had been informed that his patient was a government agent and the man who called the patient his son looked a little scary. So he said, “Alright, follow me.”

The group followed closely behind the doctor as he led them to Mac’s room, all eager to see the young man. They quickly reached the room, and saw Mac lying in a hospital bed through the large windows that let them see inside the room. Jack, Riley, and Bozer immediately headed straight inside, but when James went for the door, found himself somehow unable to open the door.

James looked back up to see through the window what was happening in the hospital room. He saw Jack sit down on the chair beside the bed and grab the blonde’s hand, as though it was completely natural for him to be by Angus’s side. Riley and Bozer dragged two chairs towards the bed before they also sat down surrounding their friend.

In that moment, they looked every bit a family, and James knew, that he didn’t belong. He didn’t have a place with them, didn’t have a place in his son’s life. And it was all his own fault.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

Matty finished having her agents get all the evidence they needed and made sure that the gang members that were arrested were taken to a secure prison as fast as possible so she could get to the hospital to see MacGyver. While he was no longer a Phoenix agent, she still considered the boy a part of her team, and she was worried about him just like the others were, as was Cage.

After about three hours, Matty and Cage finally arrived at the hospital where Mac was being treated. Cage immediately went into the hospital room to join Jack, Riley, and Bozer watch over the still unconscious Mac, and wait for him to wake up. Matty on the other hand headed over to James who was standing in front of the window the showed what was happening inside the hospital room.

“We got Luis Gomez, and a few of his drug members. There are still a few of the key cartel members though, and no one is talking. We’ll have to round them all up in order to completely take down their whole operation.” Matty informed her boss as she came to stand beside him.

“Well, we’ve taken down larger cartels with less.” James responded, keeping his eyes on his son.

“Yup.” When James stayed quiet after that, Matty glanced from him, to the team members in the room that they were staring into. After a moment of silence, she asked, “Why are you standing out here?”

“I thought I would let them be with Angus first.” James answered, still keeping attention on his son.

Matty looked back at the older agent before she questioned, “The doctor said he’s going to be fine?”

“Yeah.” James confirmed, nodding his head a little though he continued to stare at his injured son.

“So why do you look so upset?” The deputy director wondered. James stayed quiet, trying to think about what to say, how to explain all the thoughts that have been running through his mind in the last few weeks, or if he should even say anything. As he continued staring at his son, he couldn’t help but be taken aback at the sight of his son in the hospital bed.

James wasn’t blind, wasn’t ignorant to what his agents all through in the course of doing their job, how injured they could get, and he was especially aware of everything that happened to his son. He knew about every mission, what went wrong and what went right, knew about every injury his only child had sustained, and knew of every enemy that Angus had made, and the majority of the information frightened the father to his very core. He might have kept himself from Angus, but that in no way meant he didn’t care about his son, didn’t mean that he didn’t love him.

All James wanted to do was protect his son, from his enemies and himself, it was why he left. Yet, he led his son into the army and into the Phoenix Foundation. Angus did have a point there when he brought that up, and James knew that, but after years of being closed off, he couldn’t fully open up. While everyone knew how dangerous being a government agent could be, sometimes they forget how protected they could be, and with his position as the head of the Phoenix Foundation, he was in the perfect spot to protect his son.

Only problem with that and keeping his identity a secret from everyone, was that James had to do his best to keep from showing his son any special treatment. All the times his son got injured or kidnapped, James had to fight the urge to order every single agent he had to take down the people who hurt or took his son. He couldn’t expose himself yet, but if he had too, he would’ve done it.

After Angus quit, part of the Phoenix boss hoped that maybe he would be safer, but the other part of him feared what could happen to his son without his protection. He just didn’t think someone would go after him so soon. All of his worst fears came true in the last few days. An enemy from his past came after his son, and James couldn’t stop it. And now, his son was safe, yet just like always, James was outside looking in with the massive feeling that he no longer belonged in Angus’s life.

“You wouldn’t understand.” James finally answered, without actually explaining what was going through his mind.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” Matty pushed, trying to get her boss, the man she considered a friend, to open up.

“It’s nothing that really concerns you Matty. Don’t worry about it.” James told her a little harshly, wanting her to stop pressuring him to open up, to admit that she was right. She had come to him when she found out that Mac had decided to look for him, and believed that it was time to reveal himself, but James refused. He insisted it was better that way, yet Matty didn’t believe it, said that if he waited for Mac to find out, it could go badly. And she was right.

“I know that it’s easier for you, especially as the boss, to separate yourself from your feelings, but I know that you care about your son, even though you suck at showing it. And I know that all of your instincts are telling you to pull away now, but that boy right there,” Matty paused for a moment as she pointed at the former agent lying in the hospital bed before finishing, “needs his family, all of it. That includes you.”

“After all these years, don’t you think he deserves that? Cause I’ll tell you one thing, he didn’t deserve his Dad walking out on him.” Matty continued when James stayed silent.

“I know.” Oversight admitted, lowering his gaze a little in shame. He knew that his son needed a father, that was why he had his father take care of Angus, but he knew that his boy didn’t deserve his father walking out on him. Yet, after everything that had happened, he wasn’t sure if he could repair the damage in their relationship, and wasn’t even sure if he deserved a spot in his son’s life.

“So, what are you going to do about it?” Matty inquired when her boss still didn’t say anything. She didn’t wait for answer though, she just went into the hospital room to rejoin her team, leaving James standing in the hall all alone.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

It was late in the night when James finally worked up the courage to go into his son’s room. The only person that was still there though besides Angus was Jack. Bozer, Matty, Riley, and Cage had left earlier to go get some food with from the cafeteria, as none of them had been eating enough over the last few days. They tried to talk Jack into coming with them, but he refused.

“He’s still asleep?” James wondered as he entered the hospital room. Jack glanced up at him before looking back at Angus.

“The doctor said that he’ll be probably be asleep for a while.” Jack answered. James nodded as he came to stand by the foot of bed.

It was the first time that James had a clear look at his son since they found him and the paramedics took him to the hospital. Both of Angus’s eyes were bruised and swollen, his nose was also a little swollen and bruised, but luckily not broken. There were cuts and bruises along both of his arms, steri-stripes covered the cuts. Two IVs were in his one hand for blood, nutrients, and the antibiotics, and there was a nasal cannula wrapped around his face under his nose, aiding his breathing. That was all he could see as the hospital blanket covered the rest of his son’s unconscious body.

James then took his eyes off of Angus, and looked over at Jack instead. Ever since Angus was found, Jack stayed by the boy’s side. As far as Oversight could tell, the sniper hadn’t slept and hadn’t eaten at all. He stayed beside Angus like an overprotective older brother, or maybe even father. That didn’t surprise James though. He had seen after years of keeping tabs of his son how close the two had gotten, and knew that though he did his best to keep his son safe, Jack did more of that protecting than the Phoenix boss did.

“Jack, I want to say thank you.” James said, causing Jack to look over at him in surprise and confusion.

“For what?” Jack asked, completely confused as to why his boss was thanking him. For the last few weeks, especially the last few days, he had done nothing but make snide remarks and insults about him.

“For being there for him, when I wasn’t.” James replied, nodding his head in Angus’s direction.

Jack looked back over Mac for a few seconds before turning to somewhat glare at his partner’s father and said, “I didn’t do it for you.”

“I know, you did it for him.” James responded, then added, “I’m still grateful though.”

The sniper continued to stare at Mac for a few moments, before slowly turning his attention back to James and said, “I don’t know what you are planning on doing know that he knows the truth about you and everything you’ve done, but if you hurt him in any way, shape, or form again, you’re going to be the one in the hospital bed.”

“I have no doubt about that.” James said honestly, having no problem seeing Jack hurt him if he hurt his son. But since that was the last thing he wanted to do, he had to make sure that the sniper of that, “Believe me, hurting my son is not my intention. It never was.”

Jack sighed, then again turned his head to look back over at Mac as he said, “Well, if happened just the same.”

James didn’t really have anything to say in his defense to that. While he may have left his son with the intention of protecting him, he knew that he had hurt Angus. He had heard from his father about how badly Angus had taken the news that he wasn’t coming back. And he knew that that wound hadn’t healed, which meant that it was time to fix that, and that started with being there for his son properly.

So James sat down in one of the empty chairs beside the bed and waited along with Jack for Angus MacGyver to wake up.


	10. A Son's Choice

Mac wasn’t exactly sure what to expect as he slowly felt himself wake up. It didn’t feel like he was still tied to a chair anymore. Instead, it felt as though he was lying down on something. It wasn’t really comfortable, but it might as well have been a soft, fluffy cloud compared to how the hard chair felt. That, with the sound of an annoying beeping told him one thing though, he was definitely in a hospital, or at least, he hoped he was. As he struggled to find the strength to open his eyes, he apparently got someone’s attention because someone started talking.

“Mac? Mac? You awake?” The blonde relaxed slightly when he heard Jack’s voice, then forced his eyes open, and saw his former partner sitting beside him.

Jack immediately smiled when he saw his best friend open his eyes and said, “Hey buddy. How are you feeling?”

“Mm, finnnee.” Mac managed to mumble, stopping when he realized that he couldn’t move his jaw at all.

“Yeah, your jaw was broken. They had to wire it shut, so talking is going to be a little hard, but it will get easier with practice. Trust me on that.” Jack explained, only barely understanding what Mac had said and why he looked confused after he tried to speak. He had broken his jaw back in his high school years after a rough football game. He knew from experience what it felt like with a wired jaw, and how hard it can be talking with it.

“Wha h’ppen’d?” Mac asked, his voice only slightly more clearer than before.

“Well, Riley managed to use her awesome computer skills to figure out which one of Luis Gomez’s associates was buying all the supplies and ingredients that Walsh needed in order to make KX7. We used that to track down the warehouse where they were holding you and making the lab. We rounded up the cartel members that were there, including Luis Gomez himself, and we got you to the hospital.” Jack filled his partner in. The blonde slowly nodded, letting the older man know that he heard him, but still looked a little out of it. A sudden thought then came to Mac, causing him to try and speak again.

“Wa’sh?” Jack let out an angry sigh at the mention of the man who had kidnapped and tortured his brother, but remained calm. Mac needed him calm right now.

“Walsh is dead. No one is going to have to worry about him again.” The sniper assured him, placing his hand gently on Mac’s shoulder. Mac gave him a small, but relieved smile before he closed his eyes. Though the sniper, and everyone else had been waiting two days for Mac to wake up, he knew that his partner needed his rest.

Jack watched him for a moment, but turned his head to look over his shoulder when he heard someone coming into the room. Seeing that it was Oversight, who was staring at his son with a worried and anxious expression, the agent turned back to face Mac and gently shook Mac’s shoulder to get him to wake up again. While he knew that the young man needed his rest, he also knew that he needed to talk to his father, and his father needed to talk to him as well.

“Hey brother?” Jack said as he continued to shake Mac’s shoulder. When he saw the blonde force his crystal blue eyes open, he added, “There’s someone who wants to talk to you.”

Mac turned his head a little to see who wanted to talk to him, and saw the blurry form of his Dad. As the older MacGyver started coming closer to him, Mac’s vision managed to clarify. Once he reached the bed, Jack squeezed his hand before he let go, stood up, and walked out of the room, leaving the two MacGyvers alone.

“Hey Angus. How are you doing?” James asked with a casual tone though the worry in his eyes was clear. Angus tried to open his mouth to answer, causing him to grunt slightly when he was reminded that he couldn’t, and while he would’ve tried to speak like he had earlier with Jack, he couldn’t. His jaw was throbbing too much.

His Dad quickly realized what was wrong, and disappeared from Mac’s view for a moment before returning with a notepad and pencil. He put it down and the table beside the bed, and turned it so it went over top of Mac so he could write on a flat surface, and said, “Here.”

Mac managed to lift his arm, grabbed the pencil, and slowly wrote out the words, _I’m fine,_ though it was a bit messy. His Dad came closer so he could read the note as Mac, let his arm drop back onto the bed.

“Good, that’s good. You had us all pretty worried.” James replied, looking a bit relieved but still a bit concerned. Mac nodded, and closed his eyes. He knew that his Dad probably still wanted to talk to him, but he was so tired. He just wanted to go back to sleep. He forced his eyes back open though when he heard his Dad quietly add, “You had me worried.”

Mac stared at his Dad for a moment, seeing a guilty expression slowly coming upon the older man’s face, but stayed still and quiet as he waited for his Dad to continue. When his Dad realized that he had opened his eyes and was staring at him, clearly waiting patiently for him to say or do something, his Dad said, “Angus, son, I’m sorry, about all of this. I didn’t realize, didn’t think that Walsh would come after you. At least, not so fast. If I had known he would come after you, I would’ve gotten your security detail up faster.”

The blonde’s eyebrows shot up a little when he heard his Dad say that, focusing on two words in particular. He forced himself to lift his arm, ignoring that it was starting to shake a litte due to lack of strength, grabbed that pencil and scribbled out the words _Security detail?_ , before lowering his hand once more.

His Dad leaned forward again to read what he had written, then quickly turned back to his son and explained, “You may have quit Angus, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t going to make sure you were safe. You’ve wracked up a lot of enemies in the few years you’ve worked for the Phoenix, and any one of them could have gone after, and some still might.”

Mac nodded a little, but didn’t try to communicate again. Instead, he watched his father, who was looking a bit anxious. After a minute though, his Dad sat down on the edge of the hospital bed, placed his hand over his and said, “Angus, I know that you are upset with me, that you don’t trust me, and I get that. After everything that happened, after what I did, despite my reasons, I still hurt you and I can’t go back and fix that.”

Both Mac and James lowered their head when the MacGyver patriarch said that last sentence. Though Mac had done his best to hide how much it hurt that his Dad up and left him without any warning or goodbye, and on his own birthday no less, he was pretty sure that most of the time, he wasn’t successful. That was why he never talked about it. He didn’t want anyone to know how much it.

“But son, I want to fix this, I do. And I will do whatever it takes to do that. If you’ll let me.” His Dad finished what he wanted to say.

Mac didn’t say anything for a while, thinking over everything his Dad told him. The entire time he was speaking, he sounded sincere, and whenever Mac looked at him, he saw the sincerity in his eyes, along with guilt, so it was probably safe to assume that he meant what he had said. However, that didn’t mean that the blonde was anywhere close to trusting him again. On the other hand, if his Dad truly was sincere about earning his trust back and actually wanting a real relationship with him, then maybe he should give him that chance.

So, the young man lifted his hand again, grabbed the pencil, and wrote out the words, _I’ll think about it_ on the pad of paper _._

“Yeah, think about it.” His Dad responded when he saw what Mac had written. He then glanced over at something behind him before he looked back at the young man on the bed and said, “I’ll come back after you catch up with your friends.”

Mac didn’t have a chance to give any sort of response before he heard the door open and Bozer’s voice yell, “Mac!”

The blonde flinched a little at the loud voice, but smiled as he saw his best friend, along with Jack, Riley, Leanna, and to his surprise, Cage. They all came over to him as his Dad stood up and left. Bozer immediately came forward and gave him a careful and gentle hug. He then pulled away, letting Riley come over to him and as she also carefully hugged him, she said, “Dude you scared us.”

Once Riley let go and stood up, Mac reached forward to grab the pencil and wrote out, _Sorry._

“Not your fault. Just glad you’re alright.” Riley replied with a smile as Cage came over to him and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. Mac just smiled and let himself relax on the bed, completely relieved that he was back with his friends.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

Mac fell back asleep only about ten minutes after team came into his hospital room, and while they all wanted to talk to him longer, they understood that he needed his rest. Now that he was safe and the doctor assured them that he would be okay, they had time to talk to him later. And since they had managed to see him and talk to him themselves, Matty ordered practically everyone out of the room to go get some much needed rest. The only person she failed to get out was Jack, so she let him be, knowing nothing would make him budge from his partner’s side. While she then went to go talk to Oversight, the rest of the team reluctantly did as they were told.

“You know, despite how worried I’ve been about Mac, and that he got hurt, it actually felt kinda of, normal. You know, the team back together, kinda of.” Bozer remarked as he, Leanna, Cage, and Riley walked down the hall away from Mac’s hospital room.

“Yeah.” Riley responded, understanding what her friend was saying. She waited another minute before deciding to tell him what she and Matty had been talking about while they waited for Mac to wake up, “I’ve actually been thinking about that, and I talked to Matty, and I’m officially back on the team.”

“You are?” Bozer asked as he stopped in his tracks. With a grin, she nodded, which in turned caused him to smile and he wrapped his arms around, exclaiming, “That’s great!”

Riley returned his enthusiastic hug, but when a sudden thought came to his mind, Bozer pulled away and asked, “What about Billy?”

“I talked to him, and he’s a bit upset, but he gets it.” Riley answered. Bozer nodded, then turned back to face Cage and Leanna.

“And you’re back too, now all we need is Mac.” Bozer said to Cage. However, the blonde Australian shook her head with a regretful expression on her face.

“Actually, I’m not.” Cage informed them. Everyone turned to look over at her in shock. While she hadn’t been part of the team in a while, since she was off due to being shot by Murdoc, they always thought once she had recovered, she’d come back.

“What?” Riley questioned.

“I got a job offer, in Australia. After, what all happened with Murdoc, and being with my sister for the last few months, I decided I wanted to stay for a while. I came back to help you all out, but also to officially hand in my resignation.” Cage explained. She had called Matty a few days ago to talk to her about resigning from the Phoenix Foundation, but when Matty answered, she told her about how Mac was kidnapped. Cage immediately volunteered to come and help, but with the understanding that she would be resigning once they found him.

“We’re gonna miss you.” Bozer said as he gave her a quick hug.

“I’m gonna miss you guys too.” Cage responded, returning the embrace, then added, “Don’t worry though, I’ll come back and visit from time to time.”

“You better.” Riley told her, her voice only slightly threatening as she took her turn in giving Cage a hug. It would be a little strange being on the team without Cage. Even though she hadn’t been with them long, they had been through a lot in that short amount of time. Not as strange as it would be without Mac though, and the remaining members of the Phoenix Foundation could only wait to see what Mac was going to do.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

Despite how uncomfortable hospital chairs generally were, Jack found himself drifting in and out of sleep as he kept watch over his partner. He had barely gotten any rest since he learned that Mac had been kidnapped and now that his brother was safe, he couldn’t really stop his exhaustion from pulling him into a much needed sleep. However, he was startled back into awareness when he felt a hand grabbed his. When he looked up, he found that it was Mac’s hand, and that he had woken up again.

“It’s kinds late for you to be waking up brother. You should go back to sleep.” Jack told him, seeing the still exhausted look in the blonde’s eyes even though Mac couldn’t fully open his eyes due to how swollen they still were.

“Want to talk to you.” Mac managed to croak out. While talking was still a bit difficult, he doubted he had the strength to write anything out, plus, he couldn’t see the pencil and paper his Dad had given him.

“About what?” Jack wondered, putting his elbows on the bedrail, and put his chin on his hands.

“My Dad,” Mac paused, struggling to find strength to keep talking even though his jaw was starting throb again. After a moment, he continued, “says he wants to fix our relationship.”

“Do you?” Jack then questioned, knowing that at the moment, what James MacGyver wanted didn’t matter. It was Mac who had the choice to make.

“Don’t know. Don’t trust him.” Mac answered, looking very conflicted at the situation he was now when with his father.

“I know you don’t man.” Jack replied, putting a comforting hand on Mac’s shoulder. Jack thought hard for a moment, wondering if he should let Mac know about everything he had seen and learned about Oversight while his son was gone. Though he still did not like James MacGyver, he decided that Mac had the right to know at least some of it, he deserved the chance to have a relationship with his father if that was what he wanted. After it being denied for over a decade, he deserved it.

“Mac, I think you should know, that even though I don’t like your Dad, and that he sucks at showing any emotion, that I could tell he does care about you. Even with his cold exterior, I could tell.” Jack informed him, causing Mac to look up at him for a moment.

“Told him, I’ll think about it.” Mac revealed the answer he had given his father when he had told him that he wanted to be in his life again.

“You know, maybe you two just need to get to know each other again, really know each other.” Jack then suggested.

“Yeah, but how?” Mac asked. Jack just sighed and shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t have an answer to that, and apparently, Mac didn’t either.

**2016MACGYVER2016**

Four days later, Mac packed his few belongings in the bag Bozer had brought him from home. Though the doctor insisted that he had to take it easy, as it would take a few weeks for his ribs to heal, and maybe even a little longer before he could have his jaw unwired, he was discharged and allowed to go home. Mac couldn’t wait for that. He hated being in hospitals and was looking forward to be resting in his own bed in his own house.

“You ready to go?” Mac turned around when he heard his father’s voice, a little surprised at the man’s presence as he thought Jack would be the one taking him home.

“Yeah.” Mac answered, zipping up his bag as he continued to stare at his Dad. While his jaw was still wired shut and still hurt a bit, it wasn’t as bad as before and talking had become easier with practice, just like Jack had said.

“I thought I could take you home, give us a chance to talk more.” James answered, seeing the surprise and unspoken question on his son’s face. Mac nodded, but didn’t make a move to leave the room. Instead, he sat back down on the bed.

“Something wrong?” James asked, now feeling very nervous due to his son’s reaction.

“I made up my mind, about something.” Mac informed him, raising his head so he could look his father straight in the eyes. 

“Okay. About what?” James wondered, moving closer to the young man, though keeping a small distance between them.

“If you are serious about, us, fixing this,” Mac gestured to both himself and his Dad when he said that before continuing, “then, I will come back to work for the Phoenix. If you can prove to me that I can trust you on a professional level, then I will give you a chance to prove it to me on a, personal level.”

Mac had spent the last four days thinking of little else than what his father had told him. He couldn’t deny that his father had hurt him, tremendously with how he just abandoned him, how he never tried to contact him, and how he apparently somewhat controlled him his entire life, but he also couldn’t deny that deep down inside of him, there still was that little boy who missed his father and wanted him to come back home.

He remembered his grandfather telling him that his Dad was a smart man, and that smart people have a tendency on focusing on what they think is important and ignoring what actually is important, and that was what his Dad did. But, once his Dad realized his mistake, he would come back. If his Dad truly did want to fix what he had done, then, Mac was willing to give him a chance. He could only hope though that his Dad didn’t screw it up.

“But, no special favours or anything like that just because I’m your son.” Mac immediately put down his condition. The last thing he needed or wanted was his father trying to give him special treatment in order to somehow make up for lost time or to get back onto his good side. Though he doubted his Dad actually would do something like that, he wanted to make sure.

“Agreed, but, if it ever comes to your safety son, that will be my first priority. It always has been and always will be.” James added a condition of his own. Mac stared at him for a few seconds, wondering if he could argue with his Dad about it, but ultimately saw that that was one thing his father wouldn’t back down on.

“Okay.” Mac agreed.

“Good.” James said, then smiled as he crossed the distance between him and his son. As he reached him, he put a hand on the blonde’s shoulder and said, “Welcome back.”

**2016MACGYVER2016**

_Two Months Later…_

Mac sat in the passenger seat in Jack’s car as they drove towards the Phoenix Foundation. While he could have gotten a ride from Bozer, as he was heading there too, he left earlier that morning. Plus, he was sure that Jack just wanted to take him because he usually did. And, Mac was sure that Jack wanted to make sure that he was indeed well enough to head back to work.

As they entered the building, Mac was immediately bombarded with his coworkers giving him hugs, claps on the back, and them welcoming him back to work, which caused him to smile even though it made him feel slightly uncomfortable. Soon though, they reunited with Bozer, Riley, and Leanna, who were waiting for them in the hallway which led to the war room where Matty was waiting for all of them.

“Good to have you back man.” Bozer said even though he had just seen Mac earlier that morning.

“It feels good to be back.” Mac responded with a smile. Bozer then clapped him on the back as Riley also came forward and gave him a quick hug. Once she pulled away, Jack, Mac, Riley, Bozer, and Leanna made their way towards the war room.

“Welcome back blondie.” Director Webber greeted the newly reinstated agent as he entered the war room with the team.

“Thanks Matty.” Mac replied, coming to stand in the middle of the room with Jack, Bozer, Riley, and Leanna by his side.

“You ready for your first mission back?” Matty then asked with a grin, causing Mac to smile back as he said, “Bring it on.”


End file.
